Mustards: Rosemary Grapefruit and Spicy Indian

I’ve had an amazing time trying out home preserving this past year. Before 2012, I’d never canned, pickled, or extracted anything; now I’ve tried my hand at all of those things, and they’ve actually all turned out pretty successfully, save for one grape jelly I made that just tasted okay so I didn’t end up sharing it with y’all. So, after a year of honing these canned-good skills, I decided it was time to try my hand at something a little more tricky; the wonderful world of condiments. I’ve been kind of intimidated by mustard because of the intensity of its flavor, and how the ratio of vinegar to water to mustard seeds needs to be just right, otherwise the texture will be off or it won’t taste quite as mustardy as it should (or even too mustardy! But I really like mustard so to me that’s actually not even really a thing.)

So for the past couple weeks, I’ve been slowly brewing 4 different batches of mustard. Two of them I’m sharing with you today, and the other two I will share in another week or so. I used both brown and yellow mustard seeds, and recommend getting them from Mountain Rose Herbs like I did; they give you a lot of bang for your buck and the quality is exceptional. Both of these mustards are relatively coarse in texture, but can be made more smooth by continued blending. If you don’t like a nub of mustard seed in your mustards, add another 1/4 teaspoon water and 1/4 teaspoon vinegar and puree until your desired mustard texture is reached. Also, mustard seeds will continue to absorb any moisture around them for several weeks, so if your homemade mustard gets a little too thick after a fortnight, just stir in a dash of vinegar to thin it out a bit.

While the textures of these mustards are similar, the tastes are quite different (aside from, you know, the mustard part). The rosemary grapefruit mustard has a really fresh, clean and herbal taste to it, with a bit of a citrus bite. I’m looking forward to trying it on a fish sandwich, or watered down with some olive oil and using it as a marinade or rub for some tasty fish or chicken. The spicy Indian mustard was spicy indeed, but not eye-wateringly so. Although, if you like that sort of thing, you could definitely double the amount of crushed chilies to turn up the heat. It was just packed with concentrated Indian flavor, all the spices melded together to create a warm and lively palate. I can only imagine how delicious it would taste on a grilled chicken sandwich, or perhaps used as the base for a lamb marinade with some vegetable oil. Just talking about the possibilities is getting me suuuuper excited to utilize my new sandwich/marinade arsenal!

Discussion

Be still my beating heart. Mustard is my favorite thing on all of the Earth! French's sends me into a frenzy. Dijon makes me dance. But this. THIS is a whole new level. I don't even care for grapefruit, but I am SO going to put it into some mustard. And then I'm going to put that mustard on everything I eat. Everything savory, at least 🙂

My condiment-making history is full of fail: I tried to make horseradish at home, but it ended up being a flavorless goop. Turns out you have to let freshly grated horseradish root sit for a while to develop its heat, then you add vinegar when the heat is where you want it. But that window is kind of small. Maybe mustard will give me less of a hard time.

Ohhh horseradish! That would be fun to try to make, too! But that does definitely sound much more complicated than mustard, which just involves mixing some stuff around, letting it sit for two days, and then blending it with some other stuff. I am glad I've found a fellow mustardite (that should be a thing), it just tastes so good on everything. I even like to mix together mayo and mustard to dip french fries into sometimes. It sounds kind of weird but something about the creamy and the tang all mixed together is just great. And mustard marinades and mustard dressings…let me count the ways, mustard!

Omg, this is awesome. Homemade mustard has been on my To Do list for a while, and this is super inspiring! And I'm a coarse mustard girl, so making it myself means I get to have control over that. I love really bright, tangy mustard, so the grapefruit-rosemary one sounds especially amazing. I can't wait to see what the other two are!

Switching to non-food talk now: These shots are GORGEOUS. Holy cow. That blue base (shutter?) — I die. You've also inspired me to do some Etsy shopping today. 😀

I have a feeling you will reallllly like one of the ones in the next mustard post based on some of your recipes 😀 That is all I will say, but I know you will know what I'm talking about when you see it haha.

And thank you so much!! I made the blue base with some wood from home depot and paint. I didn't like how bright it turned out though, so I didn't use it for years, but then I finally brushed a dark wood stain over it and it came out so much nicer! Oh Etsy, I could spend thousands of dollars there solely on food props and utensils. So many cure little vintage things laying about!

Thank you very much! Yes, store bought mustards can be super disappointing. And if you want to get a fun and unique flavored "fancy" mustard it's usually ridiculously expensive. So much better to make them at home 🙂

I've been meaning to experiment with homemade mustard for a while… it's one of the few condiments I still buy ready-made, but I love the idea of experimenting with different flavours as you've done here. The biggest problem I have with this post is that I simply don't know which one of these recipes to try first!

Ooh! These photos are so moody and gorgeous! I am unfortunately not the biggest mustard fan, not after an incident a couple years ago that resulted in a really bad taste aversion. (It involved Mendocino Mustard, which up until then, I'd absolutely LOVED—if you ever make it up there (I realize Mendocino is pretty far from LA) you should definitely buy a couple jars) But if I were, I would be really excited about making my own mustard after this post, especially the Indian-style version. So inspiring, Eva!

Aw thank you Linda! 🙂 I have been to Mendocino, it is a cute place and now I feel drawn to return there now that I know they have awesome mustard 😀 I will travel anywhere for mustard (when I was doing a study abroad program in France I made a point of going to Dijon. Came home with a carry on full of mustard!) I have the same taste aversion to cantaloupe 🙁 It happened when I was small but I just can't get over the smell of that melon, unfortunately.

This is an older post but I hope you see this comment. My husband cannot have rosemary :(. It raises his blood pressure. I REALLY want to try the grapefruit mustard. Do you think that sage would hold up well?